Josiah Reynolds is hitching Morning Glory, her American Paint Horse, to an antique pony cart when horse whisperer, Velvet Maddox, hurries over to them.  Pointing a thin, crooked finger at Josiah, she announces that Josiah can’t participate in the annual Shawnee Trace Horse Parade.  “I see death standing next to your horse.  Beware, Josiah.  Beware.”

Startled, Josiah is worried as Miss Velvet is never wrong about such things, but decides to plunge ahead.  Surely this time Velvet is mistaken.  No one can see death.  The event goes off without a hitch until spectators surge forward onto the parade route and surround the horses, causing them to spook.  Morning Glory rears up and the pony cart runs over something.  Josiah stops her horse immediately and peers over the side of her cart. 

There is a shoeless leg sticking out from underneath the cart.  Josiah realizes that Miss Velvet was correct.  Death was, indeed, hovering near her horse.